Stronger, After the Fire

AJ Fernández has turned a misfortune into an opportunity. On the ruins of the wing of its factory destroyed by fire last April, with new and deeper foundations, it has already begun to raise the structure for a new building but with an additional floor. If all goes as planned, the new section of the factory will be fully operational by December.

“The most important thing,” says Freddy Molina, manager at AJ Fernández factories, “is that, despite the tragedy, we have no loss of human life to mourn, even though many people helped save material and, above all, tobacco from the fire.”

Despite the flames, production was underway just nine days after the catastrophe, thanks in part to the Totogalpa and Esteli centers, “although, logically, we have had some delays in shipments because we lost a lot of packaging material: boxes, rings, cellophane…”

New World Decenio

For InterTabac 2025, AJ Fernández presented New World Decenio, a new line, in regular production, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the brand’s launch (2014-2024). A blend made with an oscuro Mexico San Andrés wrapper, a Nicaraguan binder, and a predominantly Nicaraguan filler, although it includes some Honduran leaf, it is in the same medium-high body line as New World. It comes in three formats, all box-pressed: robusto, toro, and gordo.

New World Decenio is presented with rings that, with the brand’s signature features and predominance of the blue color, have been added a series of holograms that give it a more premium appearance.

Javier Blanco Urgoiti is a Spanish journalist who is crazy about the processes surrounding tobacco that take place before its manufacturing in the cigar factory – in particular the secrets of tobacco cultivation. This is an area in which he tirelessly tries to educate himself. Javier started smoking and writing about cigars in 1998, initially for the Spanish magazines La boutique del fumador and La cava de cigarros, and later, as chief press officer at La Aurora, the oldest tobacco factory in the Dominican Republic. Now he writes for Cigar Journal as a correspondent in Spain.


Newsletter

    Related posts

    Top

    DON'T MISS IT!

    Get the latest cigar news monthly.

    Enter your email and join the global Cigar Journal family.

    LOVERS OF THE LEAF

    By pressing the ‘I AM OF LEGAL AGE’ button, I agree that I am of legal age for smoking and drinking in my country.

    Send this to a friend